Defeat is Not the End
by Mabinogion
Summary: Being defeated by Red was not the end of Giovanni's exploits. He moved on and began to travel the other regions of the world, hoping one day to re-establish Team Rocket with his executives.
1. Father and Son

_Authors Note: Hey, this is my first fan fiction so please be gentle! Read and Review, constructive criticism is always welcome! Thanks for reading._

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><p>It was late in the evening when a man was hurrying through the Viridian Forest. The forest was dark and unusually quiet with only a few distant cries of bird and bug pokemon. The man was tall and middle aged with a receding hairline. He wore a black suit with white shirt. A small red letter "R" was on the left breast pocket of his jacket.<p>

As the man was moving quickly through the forest he disturbed more than a few of its inhabitants with continual and repeated grumbling. At one point he disturbed a nest of Beedrill which were easily defeated by the mans Nidoqueen.

'Damn that kid! Damn him! That Red not only ruined my plans for Team Rocket, I had to disband it!' were some of the things the man was saying over and over. 'How could I loose to a mere child? I had no choice but to dissolve Team Rocket… My loss would have destroyed the reputation the team had… How do I tell this to me executives?'

After several hours of walking through the forest the man arrived at the entrance of a house that was roughly in the centre of the forest. The house was small and basic in design. The front door was in the centre of the building with small windows on either side. The gardens surrounding the house had many vegetables growing. A few feet away from the growing crops were white wooden fencing. The man walked around the surrounding area before entering the house to be sure that he had not be followed.

When he was satisfied that there was no one around in the area he entered the small house. The interior of the house was quite plain, with white painted walls. Laminate flooring covered much of the house, excluding the small kitchen area and bathroom area in which black tiles were used. There were three visible rooms. The first room being the living, kitchen and dining area. The kitchen was in the top right of the building. The appliances in the kitchen were colourised silver, chrome and black. The counters were coloured black. The living room was at the bottom right, immediately to the right of the front door. The living room consisted of a small, outdated television, an old games console with several games carelessly left out of their cases and a couple leather armchairs. The dining area was in the middle of the room. It was a basic dining table and chairs which sat upon a blue rug with pokeball patterns on the outside edges. There were three doors on the left side of the room. The door closest to and furthest from the front door were bedrooms and the door in the middle contained the bathroom.

The man moved through the house silently. He went into the kitchen area, took a glass from one of the cupboards and filled it with water. He drank it in one gulp. He placed the cup into the sink then moved to the bedroom furthest from the front door, closest to the kitchen. He opened the door to the room and walked in just far enough to see the bed and its occupant. In the bed was a young child, a boy with blazing red hair, asleep with a charmander doll in his arms. A soft and gentle smile formed on the face of the man who was standing in the doorway as he looked at the child.

'I'm sorry, my son,' he began in a hushed voice, 'I must further disappoint you as a father. What I am about to do will reveal my lacking ability at being a good father, and will likely inspire a deep hatred for me within your heart.'

'What do you mean by that, father?' asked the red haired child who was now sitting up with his eyes, a deep shade of red, glued to the eyes of his father.

The man looked shocked. He had not expected the boy to wake up until morning. This would make his plans much more difficult. He had planned to pack the boys possessions into a suitcase during the night and send the boy away in the morning. With him awake this would likely prove problematic. The man thought it would be best to be honest with his son given the current situation.

'Silver, I really am sorry, but,' he hesitated for a moment but forced himself to say it as he thought it would be best to get it over with. 'Silver, I'm going to have to leave you. Well, more accurately send you away.'

Silver looked at his father. It was clearly seen in his face that he was puzzled about what his father had just said to him. 'What do you mean leave me? Sending me away? For how long?'

A frown formed on the mans face. 'Indefinitely.'

The puzzled look on Silvers face was replaced by a frown. Tears began to form in his eyes and his voice began to become croaky when he spoke. 'B-b-but why?'

The mans frown intensified. 'I have been shamed, my son. My plans foiled by a child. A child little older than you. Team Rocket is disbanded. This means that I must leave the Kanto Region to avoid imprisonment. I must go into exile in other regions to avoid this. By doing so I will not be able to support you, so I must leave you.'

Silver looked at his father, tears streaming down his cheeks. His voice still croaky, if not more so than before. 'B-but why can't I go with you? Surely you have large savings accounts that can't be traced to you that can support us financially...'

The man let out a small sigh. 'I will always be on the move. Always being chased by police. It is not the way of life I had envisioned for you. You deserve so much better than that, my son.'

Tears still streaming down Silvers face, 'But…'

'Enough,' the man interrupted before Silver could continue. The mans patience seemed to be disappearing. 'This is not up for negotiation. I have arranged for you to stay with my sister, Vedette. She will take you in and raise you as her own. She lives in the rural Pallet Town, a nice and rural location for you to spend your remaining childhood. I think you will like it there. Anyway, she is expecting you there tomorrow.'

Silvers tears stopped flowing. He wiped his face with the blanket on the bed. He then gave a nod in acknowledgement. With this the man began packing Silvers belongings into a large suitcase. At this point Silver lay back down and tried, but failed, to fall asleep.

After many sleepless hours morning came. The man had placed the large suitcase by the front door of the house. Silver was sitting in one of the chairs at the dining area. The man looked over at Silver and stared at him for a few moments.

'Are you ready to go, Silver?' he asked.

Silver looked tired and quite down. He looked in his fathers direction but did not meet his eyes. He stood up and answered his father. 'Lets just go.'

The man was surprised with the cooperation, and attitude, of his son. He opened the front door and made a "go outside" gesture with his hands. Silver obeyed his father and left the house into the front garden of the house. The man followed carrying the suitcase filled with Silvers possessions. The forest was much more pleasant during the morning than in the evening. Luscious shades of green could be seen from all angles, and many bug pokemon walking around the forest floor and climbing trees and bird pokemon chirping in their nests.

The man reached into his pocket and withdrew a small, red and white sphere, a pokeball. He clicked the button located on the front and the sphere expanded. With another click of the button the sphere opened and released a ball of energy. From that energy emerged a Pidgeot.

'Pidgeot, please take my son here and his luggage to Vedette's house in Pallet Town,' said the man to the large bird pokemon.

The Pidgeot let out a cry to signify its understanding. The man then, in a whisper, said 'please, Pidgeot, watch over Silver so no harm will befall him.' The Pidgeot gave a small nod to the mans request. The man gave Pidgeot a pat on the head to symbolise his thanks.

'Now, Silver, get onto Pidgeots back. He will be flying you over to Pallet Town,' said the man.

Silver did as he was told and climbed onto the pokemons back. Pidgeot then lifted off the ground a few feet. The man placed Silvers luggage into the pokemons feet. 'Be safe, and Silver, my son, I am sure we will meet again one day. I look forward to that day.'

Silver looked down at his father, meeting his eyes for the first time since the spoke the evening before. Silver looked at his father with eyes filled with hatred. 'Whatever you say fath…' Silver stopped in mid sentence, thinking for a moment. He then said 'Giovanni.'

Giovanni gave the bird a signal to head off. The pidgeot gave a nod and started flying up higher and higher. Soon they were out of his sight. Giovanni turned to enter the house when a single tear escaped his left eye.


	2. The Four Executives

Authors Notes: Hey, chapter two of Defeat is Not the End. Read and Review, and constructive criticism is always welcome! Thanks!

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><p>As his pidgeot and son escaped his line of vision Giovanni turned to enter the house. A tear escaped his eye as he approached the door. He knew that he would one day meet his son again, but what he did not know is how their relationship as father and son would be. Would he lose his son forever? Possibly. But it was not the time for him to be concerned with such things.<p>

Giovanni entered the house and wiped away the tear that had escaped his eye. He reached into his pocket and withdrew two spheres with each hand. He clicked the buttons on the front of them and released two balls of energy. The energy soon materialised into two pokemon, a Nidoking and a Nidoqueen. The two pokemon were quite large and bulky. Giovanni looked at the two and gave them a smile. The Nidoking and Nidoqueen gave smiles and roars of greetings to their trainer.

'Hello my friends,' began Giovanni. He pointed at the dining table and chairs sitting on the rug. 'Can the two of you move the furniture here into the kitchen for me?'

The two drill pokemon gave a nod and did as their trainer asked of them and moved the furniture into the kitchen. With the extra furniture the kitchen was practically inaccessible. Giovanni gave a nod as thanks and returned both pokemon into their respective pokeballs. He walked over to the rug with the pokeball design. He knelt down and grasped one of the corners. He lifted the rug and rolled it up, placing it in the corner of the room when he was done. Removing the rug revealed a secret hatch with the letter "R" in red engraved on it. He opened the door which revealed a passage of stairs leading deep underground.

He began his descent underground. It took several minutes before he reached the end of the stairs. Giovanni had reached the point in which he had to choose between three paths to take. Two of the three paths would lead an intruder through many dangerous and cleverly designed traps. The third would lead to a secret Rocket Base. This base being one of the first, and being designed by Giovanni himself, he knew which path to go down. He turned to his left and began walking further into the tunnel.

About half an hour of walking down his chosen path a door made of steel. Like the hatch leading down into the tunnels the door had a large, red letter "R" engraved on it. There was a computer terminal on the right of the door which required a password. Giovanni looked at the terminal and typed the password "Prince of the Rockets, Silver" which opened the steel door. Once open Giovanni entered the large room that was revealed.

The room that Giovanni had entered was a large room with multiple high-tech computers on the left side of the room. To the right were multiple shelving units which contained multiple pokeballs of varying types, ranging from regular pokeballs to ultra balls. There were boxes by the sides of the shelving units containing all manners of items ranging from potions to golden nuggets. In the centre of the room lay a briefcase.

Giovanni walked over casually to the computers. With a press of a button the computers were activated. Giovanni entered a few passwords and gained access to the Rocket network. Luckily for him his executives were currently on the executive private channel. This could be seen by the executives faces appearing on the screens. The executives were discussing proposals to expand Team Rocket to the Sevii Islands and the Johto Region. Giovanni could only think 'I have failed these people, the executives, my friends and allies.'

Giovanni interrupted the meeting of the executives. The four executives were quite surprised to see Giovanni's face on their screens.

'Boss!' exclaimed a woman with red eyes and hair. She wore an unusual white rocket uniform, with the traditional red "R" on the left breast pocket of the uniform. She was the only woman to be appear amongst the executives.

'It is good to see you, Boss Giovanni,' said the second executive wearing an unusual white rocket uniform. He had short teal hair with matching eyes. 'Please excuse us for having a meeting without you sir, but we were unsure of when you would be contacting us.'

Giovanni looked at the executives with a deep frown. He was unsure on how he was going to tell them he was going to disband Team Rocket for the time being. 'My executives, I have news for you all,' he began. 'I have, once again, been defeated by that brat of a prodigy that has made fools of us. The boy, Red.'

'WHAT?' came a shocked, and angry voice from the oldest looking member of the executives. He had short purple hair and beard with black eyes. Unlike the other two that had spoken before, this executive wore a more traditional black uniform. The red letter "R" appeared on his chest instead of the left breast pocket. 'How could you, the Boss of Team Rocket, be defeated by a child? A MERE CHILD?'

Giovanni stared at the purple haired executive for a few moments. 'Calm yourself, Petrel. Although this defeat will delay our plans, we will accomplish our goals, in time. We are disbanding Team Rocket, or so we will let the general public believe.'

The male executive wearing white now began to speak. 'You are to have us act as if we are no more? But why? This will give the impression Team Rocket is weak.'

Giovanni smirked slightly, 'Yes, that is true Archer. But consider this, when it gets out that the leader of Team Rocket was defeated by a child it will be nearly impossible for the organisation to be intimidating anymore. It would become much harder to recruit new members, and even harder to expand. We must stay under the radar for a few years, especially myself. When the opportune moment arises we shall return, and strike fear into the hearts of trainers once more.'

The fourth executive, a man with pale green eyes and hair hidden beneath a black beret. He wore a similar uniform to Petrel. He was clearly the youngest of the executives. 'Boss, I respect your decisions, however, I do not like the idea of closing down the organisation entirely. Perhaps we should move to another, smaller region temporarily? Such as the Sevii Islands?'

Giovanni's eyes shifted across the screen to the fourth executive. 'Ah, Proton. I am afraid that I will not be negotiating this topic. Team Rocket will disband for the time being, but feel free to take the grunts under your command to the Sevii Islands if you wish. But I would not advise high profile activity there.'

The only female executive spoke once more, 'Not up for negotiation? A little selfish are you not? It was all of our hard work and effort put into building Team Rocket to what it is.'

Giovanni's eyes moved to the female executive on the screen. 'Ariana, I ask that you, and all of you executives, to accept my judgement on this matter.'

The executives were silent for several moments. Eventually they said in unison, 'Yes, Boss Giovanni.'

'Giovanni,' began Archer, 'How will you be able to contact us when Team Rocket is ready to resurface?'

Giovanni smirked. 'It is quite simple, Archer. I will be going on a journey over the next few years. On this journey I will be training, becoming stronger, and recruiting new members to join the resurrected Team Rocket. I expect my journeys will take me to many regions we do not have any presence in. It will offer us the chance to become a much larger organisation than ever before…'

'That doesn't answer him!' interupter Petrel.

'…Patience, Petrel!' said Giovanni in a raised voice. 'As I was saying, when I have recruited a number of members I will be causing an event that I have yet to formulise. But this event will be recognisable to all of you. This is how you will know.'

'Yes sir!' said the four in unison.

'One last thing, inform those under you that you will get in contact with them when Team Rocket is going to be resurrected,' said Giovanni. 'And to recruit new people if the opportunity were to arise.'

The four executives gave a nod. Then each in turn began to close down their link to the Rocket Network. Once the last executive, Archer, closed the link, Giovanni did the same. Those four were the people he trusted the most in Team Rocket, which could be assumed by their executive status, but he knew they could get the jobs they were assigned to done.

'Those four should be fine for the years to come,' said Giovanni aloud to himself. His voice echoed slightly around the room. He walked to the centre of the room where the briefcase lay on a table. The briefcase was black and made of leather. Giovanni opened the case revealing empty space in it's hollow belly, and multiple empty compartments. 'Yes, this will be useful in my journey,' he said. He looked over to the shelves of pokeballs on the other side of the room. 'Ah, many old friends are kept here. It would be such a waste to leave them.'

He began moving the multiple pokeballs from the shelves into the briefcase. The pokeballs varied in type, ranging from regular pokeballs to ultra balls. He sealed the briefcase when he had finished moving the pokeballs into it.

Moving to the door he looked back into the room, at the computers that had been turned off to the empty shelving units and the still full boxes of items. He would leave this base, and would likely have no reason to return to it in the future. But it would always continue to be a place he could return to if the need ever arose. After several moments of looking around the room Giovanni began to retrace his steps back to the stairs leading up to the house.

When Giovanni emerged from the stairs a closed the hatch and moved the carpet to once more hide it from view. Nidoking and Nidoqueen were once again released from their pokeballs, this time tasked with moving the dining table and chairs back over the rug from the kitchen.

While the two drill pokemon worked on their assigned task he went into the bedroom closest to the front door. He placed the briefcase on his bed and moved to a wardrobe. He took out a black trench coat and a black fedora. He put them on, picked up the briefcase and moved back out into the main room where the two pokemon seemed to have completed their task.

'Thank you, my friends,' said Giovanni as he returned them to their pokeballs. He placed the pokeballs into his coat pocket. He then began moving items around the house, such as placing a plant in the centre of the table, put all of the glasses away, placing doilies on the table, etc. He left the house when he was satisfied that the house did not look suspicious, or as little suspicious as possible.

Looking around the forest as he exited the house and he was met with luscious greens and browns. He began walking through the forest to find the path that would lead him to Pewter City. 'And now,' he said, 'My journey begins once again.'


	3. The New Beginning

Authors Notes: Chapter 3 of Defeat is Not the End. Please read and review! Constructive criticism is always welsome! Thanks for reading.

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><p>A man emerged from the luscious greens of the Viridian Forest in the mid-afternoon. The man wore a black trench coat which went down to his knees with black trousers and shoes. A white shirt could be seen from within the coat. On his head was a matching black fedora. With him he carried a black briefcase in his right hand.<p>

The man, Giovanni, was now onto the path of Route 2 that would lead him to Pewter City, however, he had a second option. Having traversed the Kanto region in his youth, Giovanni knew that he could easily get to another city from this route via Diglett's Cave. Knowing that he had to escape the region, Giovanni chose to head through Diglett's Cave which would lead him to Vermilion City, the Regions port city. There he would b ablee to gain transport to another region, a region where he was unknown, not a criminal and thus able to move freely.

With his path decided Giovanni continued down the Route, eventually going off down a side path leading to the Cave. He arrived at the entrance of the cave by the late afternoon. His journey to the entrance was quiet, he did not see many people around the area which he found quite odd. The entrance to the cave was surrounded by a mixture of large and small boulders which formed a maze-path to the underground path that would lead him to Vermilion.

Upon entering the cave Giovanni could barely see. Moving deeper into the cave soon robbed him of his sight completely. 'Ah, it has been quite some time since I've been here after all. I had forgotten how dark this cave could be.'

He reached into his pocket and withdrew a pokeball. He released the pokemon within it. The light created from the energy within the ball revealed the pokemon released to be an electrode. The electrode looked like an oversized upside-down pokeball. 'Electrode, use flash,' commanded Giovanni to the ball pokemon.

The ball pokemon did as he asked and illuminated the cave with a bright light. He again reached into his pocket and withdrew a second pokeball. He released another pokemon into the cave. At first it was silent, as if no pokemon had been released. After several moments the ground a few feet away from him began to crack and break away. A pokemon that had three brown heads with pink noses and black eyes, a dugtrio, had appeared. The mole pokemon let out a cry of excitement as it realised it was in its original home. 'Dugtrio, I see you are glad to be visiting your original home.' The dugtrio let out a cry of agreement. 'Unfortunately we cannot hang about for long, Dugtrio. We need to get to Viridian quite quickly. If you will, please keep away the wild diglett and dugtrio while we are going through the tunnel.' The dugtrio let out a quiet, disappointed cry. Its middle head gave a slight nod and went back underground, which Giovanni assumed it was going to patrol the area around them to keep away any wild pokemon.

Giovanni and Electrode travelled through the cave for several hours with Dugtrio keeping away the wild pokemon. When they eventually made it out of the cave he withdrew both Electrode and Dugtrio while giving his thanks. The sky above was dark, stars hidden by thick cumulonimbus clouds. He still had several miles to reach Vermilion City. He sat next to the entrance of the cave, deciding to continue onto Vermilion in the morning.

Several hours late he awoke with the suns raise hitting his face. Giovanni's mouth formed a small smile. He had not awoken at dawn for many years, it was somewhat nostalgic. He continued his journey to Vermilion City. Shortly after leaving the exit of Diglett's Cave there was an elderly man who was running around full of energy. The elderly man had grey eyes and grey balding hair and beard. He wore casual clothing that did not suit a man of his age. This elderly man was quite excited about something.

'You! Over there! You!' said the elderly man as Giovanni tried to walk past him. 'Have you heard the news? It is quite spectacular!'

Giovanni looked at the man, confusion along with disinterest clearly seen on his face. He wanted to be rid of this man as soon as possible. 'No, I have not heard any news and I don't care to hear any, either.'

The elderly man looked at him with shock, 'How could you not have heard? It was historic!' began the man. 'In less than twenty four hours we have had two new champions!'

Giovanni's interest grew slightly, but not by much. He didn't care about such matters, or so he would have believed if it were not what the man was about to tell him.

'Yes, yes… It was televised as all championship matches are! Not many people get passed the Elite Four so they don't happen often…' he paused to take a deep breath. 'It was quite an event to have two championship matches so close together…within the same twenty four hours! First a boy named Blue won the title… I think he was from Pallet town… Grandson of Professor Oak I think… anyway… mere hours after becoming the League Champion he was challenged by another trainer from Pallet Town, a boy named Red! He is now our current League Champion!'

Hearing the name "Red" made Giovanni's blood boil. He hid the anger building inside of him as he heard this news. The boy who had defeated him, stood in his way for months, forced Team Rocket to its knees single-handedly became the champion. He couldn't believe this news, but had no choice to accept it for the moment. Through gritted teeth he spoke to the elderly man. '…Is that so? Indeed that is interesting. Now if you'll excuse me I have matters to attend to in Vermilion City.'

Giovanni continued in the direction of Vermilion in a fast pace. He did not want that elderly man to continue speaking to him. If he continued to listen to that man he would have most likely not been able to keep his temper under his control.

He arrived in Vermillion in the mid-morning. Vermillion was filled with the sounds and smell of the ocean. The sounds of boat horns could be heard in the distance. The path Giovanni was going down gave him the perfect view of the docks, which had several cruise ships and many small fishing boats and yachts in the bays. The residents of the city could be seen everywhere. Some young children playing games, teenagers causing a ruckus, adults going to their places of work, elderly people relaxing, looking out into the ocean with their partners. But with all the people in the city, Giovanni knew of one which could help him. An old resident of Vermillion. To find him he would have to navigate to the north east of the city.

By manoeuvring himself through multiple alleyways he found himself on a large plot of land. The land had mostly been flattened with only a few rocks and boulders in odd places. This land was owned by the man Giovanni was looking for. Walking for a few minutes through the plot of land he found the man he was looking for. The man was about twenty years older than Giovanni. The man was short and had snow white hair with bright blue eyes. Beside the white haired man was a machop that was used to help him clear the land of rocks and boulders. Giovanni found this man quite pitiful. Years ago when he had first started his journey he had met this man. All these years later and he is still in the same position: unable to build on the plot of land he bought because of the lack of funds to continue with the build. What was truly amusing is that many valuable goods could be found on the plot of land which could easily have sold to get the funds to build what he wanted to build on the land.

Giovanni caught the attention of the man immediately. 'Well, well. It has been quite some time Giovanni!' said the elderly man.

Giovanni smiled. 'Indeed is has, Lucius. I have been quite busy. And I'm afraid I cannot stay here for long. I was hoping that you could help me with something.'

Lucius raised an eyebrow, 'Really? I can help? Well, if I really can help I'll do what I can my friend.'

Giovanni gave a nod in thanks. 'I need to leave this region. Do you know of any ships currently here that will be going to another region?'

'Yes, there are a few,' said Lucius while he gave a nod. The elderly man took a moment to think of one of the ships in the city. 'There is one ship, the SS Aqua that can take you to the Johto Region. I think it will be leaving tomorrow morning.'

Giovanni's smile turned quickly into a frown. 'I'm afraid Johto will not be suitable for me at the moment. Are there any other ships?'

'Mmm,' Lucius went back into thought for several moments. 'Oh yes! There is one going to the Hoenn Region. I think it was the SS Tidal. That should be heading out this afternoon.'

His frown reformed into a smile, 'Hoenn? Yes… That would suit my needs for the moment. Do you know of a way I could get onto the ship?'

Lucius looked at Giovanni with a simple face, 'With a ticket.'

Once more a frown formed on Giovanni's face. 'And where exactly am I going to get a ticket on short notice?'

The old man laughed for a moment. He found the situation quite amusing. 'Well, it just so happens I was given a ticket for the SS Tidal to visit the Hoenn Region, but I don't really want to go there. I have no money for such a vacation. You can have the ticket.'

Lucius handed over the SS Tidal ticket to Giovanni. The frown remained on his face, 'Thank you my friend. I appreciate this. I will be sure to reward you for this in the future.'

Giovanni turned to leave the plot of land and the old man. He looked at the ticket, it told him which port the ship was docked in, which cabin he would have on board and the time of departure. The departure time being at one in the afternoon, which gave him several hours before he needed to be on the ship. But he did not trust such things, perhaps it was just paranoia, but Giovanni felt he needed to get on the ship as early as possible.

He manoeuvred back through the alleyways until he was near the docks. He could see the ship he was going to be boarding. It was a large luxury cruise ship with "SS Tidal" engraved onto its hull. He made his way to the boarding station. The sailor took the ticket and passed it back saying 'You may board, Sir, enjoy your trip.'

Before he could board the ship, however, there was shouting behind him. 'Wait! Please wait! You there in the black coat! Wait a moment!'

The person shouting was a short, blue haired woman. She wore a blue police uniform. This was one of the many Officer Jenny's of the Kanto region. At this point Giovanni began to panic. Why did she stop him? Did she know who he was? Was she there to arrest him? He didn't quickly calmed himself down and asked the officer, 'Yes? Can I help you?'

She looked at Giovanni for a moment, 'No, it is I who can help you.' The police officer held out a black wallet for him to take. 'I saw you drop this outside. You should really be more careful with your belongings. You would have likely lost that if I had not picked it up for you.'

Giovanni was dumbfounded. He had not expected that. He gratefully accepted the wallet from the police officer and the two bid their thanks and farewells. Giovanni proceeded to board the ship, the only thought in his mind being how incompetent that Officer Jenny was, and how the other Officer Jenny's, her cousins, in the other cities will never let her live this encounter down.


	4. SS Tidal

Authors Notes: Hey, here is chapter 4 of Defeat is Not the End. Please read and review! Constructive criticism is alway welcome! Thanks for reading.

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><p>Giovanni relaxed in his cabin aboard the luxury cruise ship, the SS Tidal. The ships was en-route to the Hoenn Region. The cabin was small and plain, coloured mostly in a dull grey. There was a bed in the upper right corner of the room on which Giovanni lay. At the foot of the bed was a chest-of-draws. A desk and chair were in the opposite corner of the room. On the desk there was a telephone that connected the room to the customer service on the ship. On the wall in between the bed and the desk was a port hole which supplied the room with spectacular views of the ocean. Immediately next to the door that lead to the hall was a door that lead to the cabins bathroom facilities.<p>

Giovanni had been relaxing in the room for four days. During this time he had remembered, on a number of occasions, the police officer who had unwittingly passed up the chance to capture him. He did not leave his room during those four days on the ship, instead preferring to contact room service to bring him anything that he would need, such as his meals.

There was a loud, clear knock on the door of the cabin. The noise echoed slightly as the sound bounced off of the walls. Giovanni looked at the door for a moment wondering who it was knocking on the door. After a few moments he recalled that he had placed an order from room service not so long ago. With this realisation he stood up from the bed and walked to the door. Giovanni was wearing clothing that did not suit him, clothing that had been left in the chest-of-draws at the foot of the bed, which oddly enough fitted him perfectly. He was wearing a blue and yellow Hawaiian shirt with cream shorts.

There was another knock on the door as Giovanni reached out for the door knob. As he opened the door he said, 'Ah, yes, yes. My apologies, I was somewhat lost in thought for a while there.'

The now open door revealed a young man in his late teens or early twenties. He had platinum-blond hair and blue eyes. He wore a uniform that was befitting a waiter of the finest of five star restaurants. With him he had a trolley filled with foodstuffs. Giovanni had become quite accustomed to this young man as he was always the one who delivered the food ordered from room service.

'It is quite alright, Sir,' said the young waiter. He wheeled the trolley into the cabin. 'Please sign here,' he requested while holding out a clipboard with the order form for the food brought to the room.

Giovanni signed the document using the name of the old man in Vermillion who gave him the ticket to get on board the ship, Lucius. He did this as to not arouse suspicion by using his real name. 'Thank you, Vincent. You may leave.'

The young waiter gave a small bow to Giovanni, 'Yes Sir,' he said and left the room to continue with his many other duties aboard the SS Tidal.

Giovanni inspected the trolley that the waiter Vincent had brought in for him. There was a lot of food and drinks stored on the torlley, much more than Giovanni could have alone. This large amount of food was, mostly, for the many pokemon that Giovanni was travelling with. He had to feed not only the six pokemon of his main party, but the ones that he took from the Rocket Base in the Viridian Forest. Because of the amount of pokemon to feed, only a handful could be released at a time.

Giovanni released Nidoking and Nidoqueen first, then Electrode and Dugtrio, and continued going in twos until all of the pokemon with him were fed. When his pokemon, and he himself was fed he sat at the desk in the corner.

'Now I must plan what I will do in Hoenn,' said Giovanni, speaking to himself. 'Firstly, I will need to establish a base of operations there, temporary or permanent, but one will be needed. Secondly I will need to find new pokemon for the use of Team Rocket, of varying types. Similarly, I will need to recruit new members for the Team.' He sat back in his chair thinking of the objectives he wanted to achieve in Hoenn. He noted down what he wanted to accomplish and placed them into a compartment in the briefcase that contained multiple pokeballs.

Giovanni was rudely interrupted during his breakfast on the morning of the sixth day of the journey to Hoenn. The door to the cabin was forced open by pokemon that Giovanni did not recognise, a dog-like pokemon with grey and black fur. Following the pokemon was two people, one male and one female, which wore black and white striped shirts, blue trousers and blue bandanas with the letter "A" displayed on them.

The female intruder began to speak, 'Citizen, we members of Team Aqua have taken over the ship. Our orders are to take you to the deck of the ship.'

The male intruder let out a grunt. 'C'mon ya fool! We don' 'ave all day!'

Giovanni was dumbfounded by the intruders. He was not expecting this. He had arranged for his own team to do similar things as these two were being ordered to do. He guessed this was how the victims first felt about those actions. Giovanni stood up from the desk he was eating his breakfast. He was wearing his customary black suit and white shirt. He decided to play along with the two so called members of Team Aqua. 'Alright, alright. I'll go with you. Let me pick up my coat and we can go.'

Both the male and female looked disgusted by Giovanni's words. 'Fine! Quickly, quickly!' said the female.

He put his black trench coat on, and walked over to the unrecognised pokemon and the two intruders. He covertly checked his coat pocket to ensure that he had some of his pokemon with him. Luckily the two did not notice his slight grin when he found two pokeballs in his pocket.

Giovanni followed the two up to the deck of the ship. There was about one hundred passengers who had been gathered onto the deck. The passengers were sitting in a large circle formation. Several more passengers could be seen being escorted by other Aqua members to the large group of people. Guarding the passengers were multiple pokemon that Giovanni did not recognise. There were multiple dog-like pokemon that had broken into his cabin and some large crab-lobster like pokemon.

'Inter tha' crowd!' said the male aqua member who had escorted him to the deck. The aqua member gave him a shove into the crowd. 'Now sit der and listen ter our Admin.'

There was near silence for a several minutes, the only noises coming from the oceans waves and the footsteps of more people being brought to the crowd of passengers. When there was about one hundred and fifty people on the deck a woman with long red hair walked in front of the crowd. She wore a bandana with the letter "A" like the other members of Team Aqua. She had blue trousers and a blue jacket. She wore a small, black shirt that kept her stomach revealed. She wore red high heal shoes.

'Passengers of the SS Tidal,' she began, 'We of Team Aqua have taken over the ship. We have no plans to harm anyone aboard as long as you all obey our orders,' she explained. She turned around to look at the ocean. 'We will be taking all the valuables on board and will then leave. So sit tight and everything will be just fine.'

There were many murmurs and grumbles from the crowd. There were some bold enough to say things like 'You can't do that!' and 'How could do such a thing?' and many similar comments. Some of the dog pokemon made threatening growls to make people quiet down.

The red haired woman turned to look back at the crowd. 'We will be doing this, so deal with it. Your cooperation is not necessary, so if you keep acting like that we will punish you.'

With those words many people kept quiet. Giovanni found the situation quite amusing, but he thought that he had played along for long enough. He reached into his coat pocket and withdrew the two pokeballs that were hidden within. He clicked on the buttons and released the pokemon inside them. A Cloyster and a Rhydon were unleashed. The two pokemon caught the attention of the members of Team Aqua and the pokemon guarding the hostages. Giovanni stood up above the other members of the crowd.

The red haired woman's eyes widened. She had not expected anyone to stand up to them, let alone one man with only two pokemon, in this situation. 'Well, well. It seems we have a lone hero amongst us. You think you can defeat all of us?' she asked Giovanni.

Giovanni gave the woman a smirk, 'You believe me to be alone? I think not, my dear.'

The woman raised an eyebrow, 'Not alone? Care to explain yourself?'

Giovanni gave a smug look to the woman, 'You have captured the passengers of the ship, yes. You have captured the Captain and crew. But, there is a group you have yet to capture, I'm afraid. The good people who work for room service.'

As Giovanni had finished speaking there was a sound of a splash and one of the Team Aqua members running up the deck shouting 'Man overboard! Man overboard!' The woman moved to see what this commotion was about, but was blocked off by a Machamp.

'Excellent work, Machamp!' came a voice behind the large superpower pokemon. In a flash of red light the pokemon disappeared revealing four waiters. The platinum blond waiter, Vincent, was amongst the four waiters. The other three wore the same uniform as Vincent. The three stood behind Vincent. The waiter on the left had blue hair and eyes, the waiter on the right had green hair and eyes while the waiter in the centre had red eyes and hair.

'I was wondering when you would appear, Vincent,' said Giovanni.

Vincent looked over at Giovanni who was surrounded by the other hostages, the pokemon of Team Aqua and some members of Team Aqua. 'Well yes, Sir. We couldn't leave our guests too long with these kinds of people.'

Giovanni chuckled at Vincent's comments. 'Cloyster, use ice beam on the pokemon surrounding this crowd.'

The pokemon did as Giovanni had comanded and used ice beam on the pokemon surrounding the crowd, freezing most. There was the odd few who managed to dodge the attack. 'Rhydon, deal with the stragglers with stone edge.' The drill pokemon obeyed the commands of its trainer, knocking those remaining pokemon unconscious.

The woman looked back at the now frozen and unconscious pokemon. 'Damn… all of them taken down so quickly… against only two pokemon?'

Vincent gave a mocking laugh, 'What do you expect from pokemon trained by the great Giovanni, Viridian City gym leader.'

The woman, her underlings and even Giovanni himself was shocked by Vincent's words. The Aqua members were obviously shocked that a gym leader was on board the ship, while Giovanni was shocked that the young waiter knew who he was, despite never revealing his real identity to him.

'All members retreat!' the woman shouted so all members could hear her.

With her words a loud noise of running footsteps to the sides of the ship. Surrounding the ship were multiple smaller boats that could not be seen from the deck. This explained how these people could get onto the ship. Although Giovanni didn't particularly care why these people were here, he did want to know more about this Team Aqua. This meant that he had to keep at least one of their members from escaping.

'Cloyster, Rhydon, stop their escape!' commanded Giovanni. The two pokemon roared and moved to block the Aqua's exits.

Vincent and the other three waiters released pokemon and did the same, blocking the exits. Looking at the four, Giovanni could only recognise one of the pokemon, Vincent's Machamp, the other pokemon were unfamiliar to him.

With their escape routes blocked, their pokemon either frozen or unconscious, the Aqua members surrendered. A tall man in a sailor uniform stood up from the crowd of people. 'Take these criminals to the lower levels, we will hand them over to the authorities when we reach Slateport City.'

Multiple sailors stood up from behind him, 'Yes Captain!' they all said in unison. The sailors walked through the crowd and escorted the Aqua members to the lower levels. After a short time they returned and began moving the Aqua members pokemon to the lower levels.

With the threat of team Aqua dealt with for the moment the passengers began moving back to their rooms. As Giovanni began to walk back to his room the Captain gave him a gesture to stop. 'Hello, I thank you for your assistance in this… unplanned event.'

'Yes, not a problem. They had to be dealt with I suppose…' replied Giovanni.

The Captain gave Giovanni a smile. He then looked over to the four waiters and signalled them to come over. The four complied with the Captain's order. 'You four, I thank you for your help in this,' he said to the waiters. 'If it were not for you five who knows what would have happened to us?' he said to the waiters and Giovanni.

'Yes, well, if you will excuse me, I must be going back to my room,' said Giovanni.

'And we must get back to our work, Captain,' said the blue haired waiter.

The Captain looked a little disappointed that a conversation did not develop. 'Ah, I see. Well, you have my, and the crews, gratitiude for what you did here today. You went above and beyond the call of duty.'

The five gave a nod and went on their way. Giovanni went back to his cabin room, the door of which had been broken by one of the Aqua members black and grey dog-pokemon. The waiters, excluding Vincent, went back to their regular duties. Vincent had followed Giovanni back to his cabin.

Giovanni stared at the young waiter with platinum blond hair for a moment before speaking. 'Well, Vincent. I have some questions for you,' he began, the seriousness could be heard in the tone of his voice. 'How did you know my real identity?'


	5. Vincent

Author's Notes: Hey, sorry for the lack of updates recently. Been quite busy with real life. Anyway, please read and review! Thanks for reading.

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><p>'Well, Vincent. I have some questions for you,' began Giovanni. 'Firstly, how did you know my real identity?'<p>

A smirk formed on the young waiters face. 'Well, you are quite well known in Kanto, you know? Famous, really. Like the other Gym Leaders,' explained Vincent. 'How could I not know who you were?'

Giovanni stared blankly at Vincent. He could tell that Vincent was trying to avoid answering his question completely. 'That does not answer my question,' he began, looking for reactions on young waiters face. 'I will concede that you may know of me, by name alone. But by appearance, I doubt it. I never made public appearances, and I was rarely at the Viridian Gym.'

Vincent continued to smirk at Giovanni. 'Oh, I suppose you've got a point there, Giovanni. Maybe I saw one of your gym matches? Maybe I battled you once? I could even be your illegitimate child!'

Giovanni let out a deep sigh. 'I see you wont be answering that question seriously.'

'Yup, you're right!' said Vincent, in a childish manner.

A frown formed on Giovanni's face. 'That is fine for the moment. My next question is this: What exactly do you know about me?'

Vincent moved across the room to sit down on the bed. 'Well, I know you're from Viridian City, Kanto, and that you were the gym leader… Not sure if you still are though. Since you're here I will assume you are not!' he said. 'Oh, and I know that you were the Boss of Team Rocket, that you have a son named Silver who lived in a house in the Viridian Forest.'

Giovanni was simply dumbfounded. He had not expected the young man before him to know much about him. Several minutes passed in silence before Giovanni spoke again. '… But… How do you?'

Vincent smiled at Giovanni, his face portraying his enjoyment of his confusion. 'Oh, I have my ways you know? I'm sure you have a decent information network around Kanto, I have mine. Lots of fun they are, especially when they have good information for me!'

Giovanni was at a loss for words. This young man, if telling the truth, had good contacts for someone of his age. He began to think that Vincent may be worthy of being recruited into the new Team Rocket at this point. 'Well then, Vincent. You seem to know quite a bit about me, but I know little about you. Care to share?'

Vincent's eyes opened wide in surprise. He did not expect Giovanni to ask him something like that, especially not in his choice of words. But still, Vincent kept smiling at him. 'Well, I can tell you some things, like my full name being Vincent Astor Montgomery, and that I was born and raised in the Hoenn Region... Mostly anyway. Oh, and my favourite colour is blue!'

Giovanni raised an eyebrow. 'Not quite the information I was looking for.'

Vincent looked at Giovanni with innocent eyes. 'Really? You should be more specific! But if I were to answer them truthfully is another matter entirely!'

Giovanni was interested in the young man before him. In all his years he had not met someone who acted like this when they knew who he was. It was fascinating behaviour to him. 'Why is it you are working on this ship when you supposedly have such a large information network? You must be something more that a simple waiter of a cruise ship.'

'Oh? Must I?' asked Vincent. 'I suppose you're right. I guess I can tell you… I found myself in Kanto without the money to get home! So the kind crew of the ship let me on board as a waiter to get back to Hoenn. They are so nice.'

'I see, then who were those other three waiters?'

'Other waiters? Oh. You mean the three with me earlier. They were in the same position as me, really. But they live in other places, I forget where, though. Not from Hoenn though.'

Giovanni was surprised that Vincent was answering his questions, and for the moment he has had no reason not to believe what he was saying for the moment. 'Then, what were you doing in Kanto?'

'What was I doing? I forget. Or I remember and I don't feel like telling you. You decide which one you want to believe!' said Vincent with amusement in the tone of his voice.

'… right. That's fine I suppose,' said Giovanni. 'What are you trying to achieve by utilising that information network? Why did you look into who I was?'

Vincent chuckled slightly. 'I didn't ask for my people to look into who you were. I had them check out all of the Kanto Gym Leaders. Lots of fun things found, you know? Like, did you know Misty goes to Cerulean Cape with a different guy every few days? Or that the reason Blaine isn't really bald, he just likes to shave his hair?'

'… I don't care about any of that…'

'Oh? But they are quite interesting things to know! As for what I want to achieve… well… I don't really want to tell you!'

'I can respect that, I suppose,' said Giovanni, enthusiasm lacking in his voice. 'I would be lying if I said I didn't think that you were interesting, Vincent.'

'Really? I think you're interesting too!'

'Is that so? That doesn't matter. I extend to you an invitation to join my organisation, Team Rocket, in our endeavours in the Hoenn Region.'

Vincent was taken aback by the invitation. The answers that he provided would hardly make anyone think that he would be a loyal member, but accepting this invitation could prove to be amusing. 'Ho ho… I didn't expect to be invited to join the Team Rocket! I would gladly accept such an opportunity!'

Giovanni smirked. He did not trust this young man fully, but he would be able to make use of him while in the Hoenn Region. As he was a native of the region he would be able to provide Giovanni with information on the local pokemon, the cities and towns, the culture, and perhaps most importantly, the competition that could be found in this Team Aqua.

'Excellent, Vincent, you can help me greatly during my stay in Hoenn,' began Giovanni. 'I trust you know a great deal about Hoenn. What can you tell me about this Team Aqua?'


End file.
